Alone on the deep--Necessity the mother of invention--A valuable book
discovered--Natural phenomenon--A bright day in my history.
It was with feelings of awe, not unmingled with fear, that I now seated
myself on the cabin sky-light and gazed upon the rigid features of my
late comrade, while my mind wandered over his past history and
contemplated with anxiety my present position. Alone! in the midst of
the wide Pacific, having a most imperfect knowledge of navigation, and in
a schooner requiring at least eight men as her proper crew. But I will
not tax the reader's patience with a minute detail of my feelings and
doings during the first few days that followed the death of my companion.
I will merely mention that I tied a cannon ball to his feet and, with
feelings of the deepest sorrow, consigned him to the deep.
For fully a week after that a steady breeze blew from the east, and, as
my course lay west-and-by-north, I made rapid progress towards my
destination. I could not take an observation, which I very much
regretted, as the captain's quadrant was in the cabin; but, from the day
of setting sail from the island of the savages, I had kept a dead
reckoning, and as I knew pretty well now how much lee-way the schooner
made, I hoped to hit the Coral Island without much difficulty. In this I
was the more confident that I knew its position on the chart (which I
understood was a very good one), and so had its correct bearings by
compass.
As the weather seemed now quite settled and fine, and as I had got into
the trade-winds, I set about preparations for hoisting the top-sails.
This was a most arduous task, and my first attempts were complete
failures, owing, in a great degree, to my reprehensible ignorance of
mechanical forces. The first error I made was in applying my apparatus
of blocks and pulleys to a rope which was too weak, so that the very
first heave I made broke it in two, and sent me staggering against the
after-hatch, over which I tripped, and, striking against the main-boom,
tumbled down the companion ladder into the cabin. I was much bruised and
somewhat stunned by this untoward accident. However, I considered it
fortunate that I was not killed. In my next attempt I made sure of not
coming by a similar accident, so I unreeved the tackling and fitted up
larger blocks and ropes. But although the principle on which I acted was
quite correct, the machinery was now so massive and heavy that the mere
friction and stiffness of the thick cordage prevented me from moving it
at all. Afterwards, however, I came to proportion things more correctly;
but I could not avoid reflecting at the time how much better it would
have been had I learned all this from observation and study, instead of
waiting till I was forced to acquire it through the painful and tedious
lessons of experience.
After the tackling was prepared and in good working order, it took me the
greater part of a day to hoist the main-top sail. As I could not steer
and work at this at the same time, I lashed the helm in such a position
that, with a little watching now and then, it kept the schooner in her
proper course. By this means I was enabled also to go about the deck and
down below for things that I wanted, as occasion required; also to cook
and eat my victuals. But I did not dare to trust to this plan during the
three hours of rest that I allowed myself at night, as the wind might
have shifted, in which case I should have been blown far out of my course
ere I awoke. I was, therefore, in the habit of heaving-to during those
three hours; that is, fixing the rudder and the sails in such a position
as that by acting against each other, they would keep the ship
stationary. After my night's rest, therefore, I had only to make
allowance for the lee-way she had made, and so resume my course.
Of course I was to some extent anxious lest another squall should come,
but I made the best provision I could in the circumstances, and concluded
that by letting go the weather-braces of the top-sails and the top-sail
halyards at the same time, I should thereby render these sails almost
powerless. Besides this, I proposed to myself to keep a sharp look-out
on the barometer in the cabin, and if I observed at any time a sudden
fall in it, I resolved that I would instantly set about my multiform
appliances for reducing sail, so as to avoid being taken at unawares.
Thus I sailed prosperously for two weeks, with a fair wind, so that I
calculated I must be drawing near to the Coral Island; at the thought of
which my heart bounded with joyful expectation.
The only book I found on board, after a careful search, was a volume of
Captain Cook's voyages. This, I suppose, the pirate captain had brought
with him in order to guide him, and to furnish him with information
regarding the islands of these seas. I found this a most delightful book
indeed, and I not only obtained much interesting knowledge about the sea
in which I was sailing, but I had many of my own opinions, derived from
experience, corroborated; and not a few of them corrected. Besides the
reading of this charming book, and the daily routine of occupations,
nothing of particular note happened to me during this voyage, except
once, when on rising one night, after my three hours' nap, while it was
yet dark, I was amazed and a little alarmed to find myself floating in
what appeared to be a sea of blue fire! I had often noticed the
beautiful appearance of phosphorescent light, but this far exceeded
anything of the sort I ever saw before. The whole sea appeared somewhat
like milk and was remarkably luminous.
I rose in haste, and, letting down a bucket into the sea, brought some of
the water on board and took it down to the cabin to examine it; but no
sooner did I approach the light than the strange appearance disappeared,
and when I removed the cabin lamp the luminous light appeared again. I
was much puzzled with this, and took up a little of the water in the
hollow of my hand and then let it run off, when I found that the luminous
substance was left behind on my palm. I ran with it to the lamp; but
when I got there it was gone. I found, however, that when I went into
the dark my hand shone again; so I took the large glass of the ship's
telescope and examined my hand minutely, when I found that there were on
it one or two small patches of a clear, transparent substance like jelly,
which were so thin as to be almost invisible to the naked eye. Thus I
came to know that the beautiful phosphoric light, which I had so often
admired before, was caused by animals, for I had no doubt that these were
of the same kind as the medusae or jelly-fish which are seen in all parts
of the world.
On the evening of my fourteenth day, I was awakened out of a nap into
which I had fallen by a loud cry, and starting up, I gazed around me. I
was surprised and delighted to see a large albatross soaring majestically
over the ship. I immediately took it into my head that this was the
albatross I had seen at Penguin Island. I had, of course, no good reason
for supposing this, but the idea occurred to me, I know not why, and I
cherished it, and regarded the bird with as much affection as if he had
been an old friend. He kept me company all that day and left me as night
fell.
Next morning as I stood motionless and with heavy eyes at the helm, for I
had not slept well, I began to weary anxiously for day-light, and peered
towards the horizon, where I thought I observed something like a black
cloud against the dark sky. Being always on the alert for squalls, I ran
to the bow. There could be no doubt it was a squall, and as I listened I
thought I heard the murmur of the coming gale. Instantly I began to work
might and main at my cumbrous tackle for shortening sail, and in the
course of an hour and a half had the most of it reduced,--the top-sail
yards down on the caps, the top-sails clewed up, the sheets hauled in,
the main and fore peaks lowered, and the flying-jib down. While thus
engaged the dawn advanced, and I cast an occasional furtive glance ahead
in the midst of my labour. But now that things were prepared for the
worst, I ran forward again and looked anxiously over the bow. I now
heard the roar of the waves distinctly, and as a single ray of the rising
sun gleamed over the ocean I saw--what! could it be that I was
dreaming?--that magnificent breaker with its ceaseless roar!--that
mountain top!--yes, once more I beheld the Coral Island!